Divided Supreme Court Overturns State Death Row Conviction

Under that process, the defense first raises an inference of discrimination, the prosecutor then provides race-neutral explanations, and the defense is allowed to argue that those explanations are merely a pretext for unlawful discrimination.

The central issue in the case was not necessarily the reasons Evans offered, but whether the trial court properly completed the Batson process. According to a majority of Supreme Court justices, the judge overseeing the trial accepted the prosecutor’s explanations and moved forward without giving the defense a meaningful opportunity to challenge them before the jury was finalized.

The jury that ultimately convicted Pitchford consisted of 11 White jurors and one Black juror.